Another rainy afternoon
on Geri Skeen (Rwanda), 13/Feb/2011 15:18, 34 days ago
Hi everyone. Julia and I went on a great walk yesterday, Saturday, morning. She’d been shown a path through the cultivated flat bottom of the valley down the hill from our house and she tried to remember it again. We found it without too much difficulty, a narrow raised earth path held in place solely by the grass growing up its sides, through fields of maize and then wetter fields of what I guessed might be rice. I was pointing to it and speculating when some women we’d just been talking to shouted ‘umuceri’ to me. As I happen to know that this is the ikinyarwandan word for rice, that was gratifying. Julia put me to shame most of the way though as she has mastered quite a bit of ikinyarwanda since arriving here in September and was able to hold simple conversations that went way over my head. We saw ibis and heron fishing, and what looked like pelicans. Eventually we came out onto the tar road which we took back into town, coming off it again to go through Gahogo, our suburb of Gitarama. We were almost home when the heavens opened. We took shelter in the porch of a little shop, along with a couple of other people. When the rain started blowing onto the porch, the shop owner invited us all inside and we sat on benches in the shop. After half an hour of solid rain, three children came in, soaked through and looking very upset. Apparently their house had collapsed. As no-one went out to do anything, I presume there were some adults somewhere dealing with it who had told the children to shelter. The boy was shivering a bit and the girl had brought with her what may have been her most valued possessions: two school exercise books. They were rather wet and the shop keeper smoothed them out for her. She didn’t offer them a towel or dry clothes though, just shelter like the rest of us. The government condemns houses made from mud, and pulls them down, presumably for this reason; but many people are unable to afford proper bricks.We got home to no water and no electric. They turn off the water when it rains hard because it stirs up sediment which takes more chemicals to deal with, hence making it more expensive. Water had flooded our two spare back bedrooms, soaking the mattresses on the floors. Not much water in my bedroom this time, presumably because of the wind direction. The thunder and lightning resumed. By 6pm it had stopped and the electric came back on.Sunday morning. Still no water. As I’ve realised that it tends to rain in the afternoon, I went for a walk first thing. I’ve learned that when people ask me a question ending in ‘He?’ it means they’re asking me where I’m going, as He means Where, and comes at the end of the sentence. So I now answer‘Nhaho’; the first syllable is supposed to be said in a nasally way. That means Nowhere. I then say‘Ndimo gutembera,’ which means ‘I’m going for a walk.’ Gutembera means to go for a walk just for the sake of it, rather than to get somewhere. It’s great because that makes sense to people and that makes me feel less awkward walking through their lives. A woman with a baby on her back, outside her house, wanted to show me her cow. She knew the English word‘cow’. I did my best to tell her I thought her cow was a very fine one. Back by mid-morning. Put the mattresses out to dry in the sun. It’s been raining all afternoon. Thunder and lightning again for a while too. Electric went off again. Water is still off. Had a nap. Electric came back on so made a cup of tea and filled our flask with hot water in case it goes off again. Played my guitar. Perfectly pleasant way to spend a rainy Sunday afternoon.